Pac-12 coaches take aim at Stanford women

Updated 11:27 pm, Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Since losing in the final to Arizona State in the first Pac-12 tournament in 2002, Stanford has lost one game in the event, the 2006 final to UCLA.

The Cardinal won the other 10 tournament titles and will shoot for No. 11 this weekend at KeyArena in Seattle. What will a team have to do to beat the Cardinal, who moved up a notch to No. 4 in the AP poll this week after South Carolina lost to Tennessee?

"They're such a great execution team," UCLA head coach Cori Close said. "You have to disrupt that. You've got to make them run their offense farther from the basket to make it tough to get the ball to Chiney" Ogwumike.

"You can't necessarily stop Chiney, but you have to try to tire her out," Colorado head coach Linda Lappe said. "It's about trying to take away what they want."

Besides relying on the low-post prowess of Ogwumike, the two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year, Stanford (28-2, 17-1 Pac-12) is the second-best three-point-shooting team in the conference, behind Oregon State.

For the Cardinal to lose, they're going to have to have a cool night from three-point range, according to Arizona head coach Niya Butts. "I don't think anybody's invincible," she said. "That's why you play the game. You have to put two halves together."

Washington was the only team to do that in the conference this season, beating the Cardinal 87-82 in Seattle on Feb. 9.

"I don't think what we did that night works every night," Huskies head coach Mike Neighbors said. "We took a calculated risk of letting them shoot three-pointers, and they didn't make them (9-for-41). We packed the defense in on Chiney. We played really good on offense, and they missed a lot of shots they normally make."

In the rematch at Stanford, the Cardinal shot better from three-point range, but mainly they tightened their defense and pummeled the Huskies on the boards 50-32. Ogwumike had 32 points in an 83-60 rout.

"I don't know that any team has a blueprint for stopping Chiney," Neighbors said.

For the third straight year, Cal (21-8, 13-5) is the No. 2 seed. The Bears will have All-Pac-12 point guard Brittany Boyd, who has been hurting lately. She injured an ankle in a win over Arizona on Feb. 14, came back to play well against Arizona State two days later but missed the regular-season finale against Washington on Saturday with a mild knee sprain.

"We expect Brittany to be good to go," Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "She's one of the most competitive kids I've ever seen."

After drawing byes in the first round, Stanford and Cal swing into action Friday. The Cardinal play at noon against the winner of Thursday's game between UCLA and Colorado. The Bears play at 6 p.m. against the winner of Washington State-Oregon game.

Pac-12 women's tournament

KeyArena, Seattle

Thursday

First round

#8 UCLA vs. #9 Colorado, noon

#5 USC vs. #12 Arizona, 2:30 p.m.

#7 Washington State vs. #10 Oregon, 6 p.m.

#6 Washington vs. #11 Utah, 8:30 p.m.

Friday

Quarterfinals

#1 Stanford vs. winner 8/9, noon

#4 Arizona State vs. winner 5/12, 2:30 p.m.

#2 Cal vs. winner 7/10, 6 p.m.

#3 Oregon State vs. winner 6/11, 8:30 p.m.

Saturday

Semifinals, 6 and 8:30 p.m.

Sunday

Championship game, 6 p.m.

All games on Pac-12 Networks, except championship game, which is on ESPN